A blog about sports broadcasting from the great state of Florida.
They report. I decide.

Sunday, October 17, 2004

College Wrapup

No broadcast yesterday as my Internet was inexplicably down all day. I don't know why it is gone or when it will return, so updates may be intermittent until TSB World Headquarters is back up and running.

Beating Middle Tennessee State 52-16 realistically does nothing for Florida as far as regaining some respect nationally or getting back in the SEC East race, but it was exactly what the team needed. After a bad week on the field and in the press, having a game where it was never in doubt was just what the doctor ordered. The crowd was at least 11,000 under capacity, but as this was supposed to be an off-week (thanks, Frances) and considering the opponent, that's not unexpected. Chris Leak was excellent, Chad Jackson was spectacular, and Deshawn Wynn took home 3 TDs. All around, it was a good day.

The rest of college football has quite an exciting day. Some teams had close calls (Miami, Oklahoma, Texas), some untested teams were exposed (Arizona State, Virginia, Purdue, Michigan, Tennessee, Oklahoma State), and a few others were simply KOed (Ohio State, Minnesota). Boise State and Southern Miss showed how dicey it is when comparing non-BCS conference teams with the BCS leagues as Boise State, who may go undefeated, beat lowly Tulsa on a last-second field goal and Southern Miss was dominated by Alabama 27-3. Utah, however, keeps looking better and better, not only because of a thoroughly impressive win over North Carolina, but also due to Texas A&M's victory over Oklahoma State. TAMU looks like a very strong team, and Utah ran it up on them 41-21 the first game of the season. Texas needs to figure out how to throw as its QBs managed just 56 yards with two INTs in their close win over Missouri. If they can't, then Texas Tech, who definitely knows how to throw the ball, is going to kill the Longhorns' BCS hopes in Lubbock on Saturday.

Wisconsin made me look good for putting them on the list last week, and Virginia made me look bad for having them on it at all as Ohio State has done the past two weeks. The Big East is the only conference without a candidate, though no conference has more than one.

What happened to the ACC? Wasn't it supposed to be one of the best conferences in football? It's the same old story as ever, with FSU and, predictably, newcomer Miami being the only legitamate teams followed by a large group of pretenders. Virginia looks like it has turned in Maryland - they can rack up a lot of wins over other mediocre ACC teams, but when it comes to the elite, they simply fold. Miami and FSU aside, every ACC team has at least one loss it shouldn't have and the conference overall has an underwhelming non-conference record. So much for the preseason hype. It's a joke of a football conference as it always has been. Call me back during basketball season.

Speaking of basketball, Florida's Midnight Madness was mixed bag. It kicked off with a straight-games win over LSU in volleyball. It showed how much confidence the school has in the volleyball team as the entire night's schedule would have been thrown off had the volleyball match gone longer than the minimum three games. It was also interesting to be there with basketball fans making up the largest portion of the audience as they are quite different than the normal volleyball crowd. The special guest was indeed William Hung, inciting some in the crowd to jingle their keys at him while performing as they would at the opposing fans during the 4th quarter of a blowout basketball or football game. He even received his own personalized black #23 jersey, causing the program to reach a new low. If there's anything that says "jinx on the season" more than giving a no-talent hack an honorary jersey, I'd like to know. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but that doesn't make his singing more on key and plus, the joke died a long time ago. The teams came out and ran layup drills and sloppy scrimmages like normal, with turnovers on about every other play as a result of trying to show off (as normal). The slam dunk contest was won by a guest from the track team, Mike Morrison, who is the SEC long jump champion and clinched the deal with a through-the-legs dunk in the first round and a free throw line dunk in the finals. Freshman Joakim Noah from New York is going to end up a fan favorite if he can play well enough to get consistent minutes.

I resent the comment about maryland only beating mediocre acc teams, apparently you havent been watching acc football this year. Maryland is only beating...duke. We are a football team with a defense that should rank in the top 15 in the nation, and a special teams that should be #1 (except our all time acc pts leader and 50 pts shy of the ncaa leader kicker is going through some sort of mental breakdown). Maryland can't move the ball. Our offense has put up a whopping...you ready for this 189 yrs...combined over the past 2 games! Talk about disapointment. We have no go to receiver, and 2 young qbs and an offensive line that wont give them 3 seconds to throw the ball. Our running game is decent, but of course that goes away when you cant pass the ball. The bottom line is...midnight maddness was friday, bring on the ACC bball! 5 teams in the top 10, Maryland is returning almost everyone and has a good looking freshmen in Gist. Despite Gary Williams not being able to climb out of the race car that he entered into the comcast center on, i predect great things for this team, not necessarily in Jan and Feb, becuase that ACC schedual is brutal. But come march the sweet 16 will have all 7 acc teams that make the tourney! Bring it on- next semester will be a great time to be an ACC bball fan. ps when it comes to acc bball, i dont think anyone should really count miami and va tech...just think of them more as a 2 game boost for the real teams in the confrence- just like duke in football

I should have said that Virginia is the new Maryland, an overhyped team that can't win a big game when it counts. Maryland has fallen back into before-and-after-Julius-Peppers North Carolina territory.Dave